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Spaying

Cedar is scheduled to get fixed on Jan. 2. On the Connections board there's a discussion thread about spaying prior to the first head leading to incontinence. Cedar will be 6 mo on Jan 7. Our vet recommended spaying before her first heat.

We try to convince our puppy people to wait til their puppy is a year old or so before S/N. But primarily because we like to see the growth plates closed. I agree 100% with what Laura said about that on the other forum. However, many times we lose to the pressure vets put on people to S/N before the first season.

All this assumes that our puppy people are responsible owners and will keep a VERY close eye on their dogs.

A few years back there was even a move on to S/N very early, like on the order of 3 months old. I believe that was partially a breeder reaction to people buying a puppy and then breeding it in violation of their contract; just couldn't register it with CKCSC or AKC. Have not heard much about that lately, so hopefully that idea has pretty much died.

Sadie just finished her first heat and she is 10 months old. We had decided to wait until after her first birthday to have her spayed. Her first heat was a first experience for all of us. First we bought doggie diapers, but she kept ripping them off. Then we bought the cloth diaper pants and that was much better, she couldn't rip the velcro open. During her heat we had to go out of town and she stayed with my mom. My mom has a neighbor that breeds pit bulls and they are always letting them run loose and they can jump the back fence so I was a nervous wreck that they would jump the fence and come after Sadie. icon_yikes I made my mom promise not to take her in the back yard without her leash. That way if they did jump the fence, mom could pick Sadie up quickly. I cant wait till her birthday, I sure dont want to go through that again!

Hi Sadie's Mom, It sounds awful. the thought of someone violating your baby is just yuk! I remember my Dad used to breed Cocker Spaniels and obviously he would only let certain suitors at his dog. However, there were a lot of stray dogs around at the time and he used to have a selection of missiles kept by the upstairs window that he could throw at unwanted suitors!! He used things such as buckets of iced water, logs for the fire, coal, anything he could get his hands on.

What we have found works best for the girls in season are the cloth diapers (the ones with velcro), then put in a panty liner.

Those diapers will NOT act as a chastity belt. Those darn boys can get them off in a heartbeat! I would not let a girl in season outside alone unless she was surrounded by a 10' fence; even then ........ An experienced male needs just a few seconds to tie.